Occupy thyself in remembrance of the Beauty of Him Who is
the Unconstrained at early morn, and seek communion with Him at the hour of
dawn. O ‘Alí! Remembrance of Me is a healing medicine to
the souls and a light to the hearts of men. 
Say: O people! Spread not disorder on the earth nor dispute
with your fellow men, for this would ill beseem them that occupy, beneath the
shadow of their Lord, the station of such as are faithful to the one true God.
Whensoever ye encounter a thirsty soul, give him to drink from the cup of
everlasting life; and whensoever ye find a hearing ear, recite unto him the
verses of God, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Compassionate. Unloose your
tongues with kindly words and, should ye find the people inclined towards the
Sanctuary of God, summon them to the truth; otherwise leave them to their own
selves and to that condition which is the reality of the nethermost fire.
Beware lest ye cast the pearls of inner meaning before the blind and the barren
in heart, inasmuch as they are deprived of beholding the light and are unable
to distinguish the worthless pebble from the precious and gleaming pearl. Wert
thou for a thousand years to recite unto a stone the verses of wondrous glory,
would it ever be affected by them or comprehend their significance? Nay, by thy
Lord, the All-Merciful, the Most Compassionate! Wert thou to recite unto the
deaf all the verses of God, would they hear a single letter thereof? Nay, by His
ancient and glorious Beauty!
Blessed, doubly blessed, is the ground which His
[‘Abdu’l-Baha’s] footsteps have trodden, the eye that hath been cheered by the
beauty of His countenance, the ear that hath been honoured by hearkening to His
call, the heart that hath tasted the sweetness of His love, the breast that
hath dilated through His remembrance, the pen that hath voiced His praise, the
scroll that hath borne the testimony of His writings.
Say: None shall be immune in this Day from God’s decree;
none shall find refuge save in Him. This, verily, is the truth, and aught else
is but manifest error. God hath made it incumbent upon all to teach His Cause
to the extent of their ability. Such is the decree that the Finger of might and
power hath recorded in the Tablets of supernal glory. Whoso quickeneth but a
single soul in this Revelation, it is as though he had quickened all humanity:
Him will God, on the Day of Resurrection, raise again to life in the paradise
of His oneness, adorned with the raiment of His own Self, the Sovereign
Protector, the Almighty, the All-Bountiful. Such is the nature of the
assistance ye can render to your Lord, and naught else is worthy of mention in
this Day in the presence of God, your Lord and the Lord of your sires of old.
A Word hath, as a token of Our grace, gone forth from the
Most Great Tablet—a Word which God hath adorned with the ornament of His own
Self, and made it sovereign over the earth and all that is therein, and a sign
of His greatness and power among its people, that all may glorify thereby their
Lord, the Almighty, the All-Powerful, the All-Wise, and extol the praise of
their Creator and the sanctity of the Soul of God that holdeth sway over all
created things. This, verily, is none other than a Word sent down by Him Who is
the All-Knowing, the Ancient of Days.
There hath branched from the Sadratu’l-Muntahá this sacred
and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath
sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow. Verily the Limb of the Law
of God hath sprung forth from this Root which God hath firmly implanted in the
Ground of His Will, and Whose Branch hath been so uplifted as to encompass the
whole of creation. Magnified be He, therefore, for this sublime, this blessed,
this mighty, this exalted Handiwork! Draw nigh unto Him, O people, and taste
the fruits of wisdom and knowledge that have proceeded from Him Who is the
Almighty, the All-Knowing. Whoso hath failed to taste thereof is deprived of
God’s bounty, though he partake of all that the earth can produce, could ye but
perceive it!
This Day a door is open wider than both heaven and earth.
The eye of the mercy of Him Who is the Desire of the worlds is turned towards
all men. An act, however infinitesimal, is, when viewed in the mirror of the
knowledge of God, mightier than a mountain. Every drop proffered in His path is
as the sea in that mirror. For this is the Day which the one true God,
glorified be He, hath announced in all His Books, unto His Prophets and His
Messengers.
Say: O people! Let not this life and its deceits deceive
you, for the world and all that is therein is held firmly in the grasp of His
Will. He bestoweth His favor on whom He willeth, and from whom He willeth He
taketh it away. He doth whatsoever He chooseth. Had the world been of any worth
in His sight, He surely would never have allowed His enemies to possess it,
even to the extent of a grain of mustard seed. He hath, however, caused you to
be entangled with its affairs, in return for what your hands have wrought in
His Cause. This, indeed, is a chastisement which ye, of your own will, have
inflicted upon yourselves, could ye but perceive it. Are ye rejoicing in the
things which, according to the estimate of God, are contemptible and worthless,
things wherewith He proveth the hearts of the doubtful?
Grieve thou not over those that have busied themselves with
the things of this world, and have forgotten the remembrance of God, the Most
Great. By Him Who is the Eternal Truth! The day is approaching when the
wrathful anger of the Almighty will have taken hold of them. He, verily, is the
Omnipotent, the All-Subduing, the Most Powerful. He shall cleanse the earth
from the defilement of their corruption, and shall give it for an heritage unto
such of His servants as are nigh unto Him.
God hath, through His tongue that uttereth the truth, testified
in all His Tablets to these words: “I am He that liveth in the Abhá Realm of
Glory.”
Thus have We built the Temple with the hands of power and
might, could ye but know it. This is the
Temple promised unto you in the Book. Draw ye nigh unto it. This is
that which profiteth you, could ye but comprehend it. Be fair, O peoples of the earth! Which is preferable, this, or a temple which
is built of clay? Set your faces towards
it. Thus have ye been commanded by God,
the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Follow ye His bidding, and praise ye God, your Lord, for that which He
hath bestowed upon you. He, verily, is
the Truth. No God is there but He. He revealeth what He pleaseth, through His
words “Be and it is”.
He [God], verily, overshadoweth all that is in the heavens
and on earth. To none is given the right to protest against anyone concerning
that which hath befallen the Cause of God. It behoveth whosoever hath set his
face towards the Most Sublime Horizon to cleave tenaciously unto the cord of
patience, and to put his reliance in God, the Help in Peril, the Unconstrained.
O people of the Qur’án! Ye are as nothing unless ye submit
unto the Remembrance of God and unto this Book. If ye follow the Cause of God,
We will forgive you your sins, and if ye turn aside from Our command, We will,
in truth, condemn your souls in Our Book, unto the Most Great Fire. We, verily,
do not deal unjustly with men, even to the extent of a speck on a date stone.
O ye loved ones of God! Drink your fill from the well-spring
of wisdom, and walk ye in the garden of wisdom, and soar ye in the atmosphere
of wisdom, and speak forth with wisdom and eloquence. Thus biddeth you your
Lord, the Almighty, the All-Knowing.
…while in ‘Iráq, We wished to come together with the divines
of Persia. No sooner did they hear of this, than they fled and said: ‘He indeed
is a manifest sorcerer!’ This is the word that proceeded aforetime out of the
mouths of such as were like them. These [divines] objected to what they said,
and yet, they themselves repeat, in this day, what was said before them, and
understand not. By My life! They are even as ashes in the sight of thy Lord. If
He be willing, tempestuous gales will blow over them, and make them as dust.
Thy Lord, verily, doth what He pleaseth.
…We beseech God, exalted be His glory, to enable thee
[Nasiri’d-Din Shah] to aid His Faith and turn towards His justice, that thou
mayest judge between the people even as thou wouldst judge between thine own
kindred, and mayest choose for them that which thou choosest for thine own
self. He, verily, is the All-Powerful,
the Most Exalted, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.
We bear witness unto that whereunto God hath Himself borne
witness ere the creation of the heavens and of the earth, that there is none
other God but Him, the Almighty, the All-Bounteous. We testify that He is One
in His Essence, One in His attributes. He hath none to equal Him in the whole
universe, nor any partner in all creation. He hath sent forth His Messengers,
and sent down His Books, that they may announce unto His creatures the Straight
Path.
The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every
direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily
increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be
discerned....
O concourse of Shí’ihs! Fear ye God, and Our Cause, which
concerneth Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance of God. For great is its fire,
as decreed in the Mother-Book.
O concourse of divines! Fear God from this day onwards in
the views ye advance, for He Who is Our Remembrance in your midst, and Who
cometh from Us, is, in very truth, the Judge and Witness. Turn away from that
which ye lay hold of, and which the Book of God, the True One, hath not
sanctioned, for on the Day of Resurrection ye shall, upon the Bridge, be, in
very truth, held answerable for the position ye occupied.
We pray God… to graciously aid the King to do His will and
pleasure, and to confirm him in that which shall draw him nigh unto the
Dayspring of God’s most excellent names, so that he may not give countenance to
the injustice he witnesseth, may look upon his subjects with the eye of
loving-kindness, and shield them from oppression.
We cherish the hope that one of the kings of the earth will,
for the sake of God, arise for the triumph of this wronged, this oppressed
people. Such a king will be eternally extolled and glorified. God hath
prescribed unto this people the duty of aiding whosoever will aid them, of serving
his best interests, and of demonstrating to him their abiding loyalty. They who
follow Me must strive, under all circumstances, to promote the welfare of
whosoever will arise for the triumph of My Cause, and must at all times prove
their devotion and fidelity unto him. Happy is the man that hearkeneth and
observeth My counsel. Woe unto him that faileth to fulfil My wish.
What mankind needeth in this day is obedience unto them that
are in authority, and a faithful adherence to the cord of wisdom. The
instruments which are essential to the immediate protection, the security and
assurance of the human race have been entrusted to the hands, and lie in the
grasp, of the governors of human society. This is the wish of God and His
decree....
We… beseech God, exalted be He, to gather all mankind around
the Gulf of the Most Great Ocean, an ocean every drop of which proclaimeth that
He is the Harbinger of joy unto the world and the Quickener of all its
peoples. Praise be to God, the Lord of
the Day of Reckoning!
How lofty is the station which man, if he but choose to
fulfill his high destiny, can attain! To what depths of degradation he can
sink, depths which the meanest of creatures have never reached! Seize, O
friends, the chance which this Day offereth you, and deprive not yourselves of
the liberal effusions of His grace. I beseech God that He may graciously enable
every one of you to adorn himself, in this blessed Day, with the ornament of
pure and holy deeds. He, verily, doeth whatsoever He willeth.
Whatsoever instilleth assurance into the hearts of men,
whatsoever exalteth their station or promoteth their contentment, is acceptable
in the sight of God.
… I now reveal for thee this Tablet… that thou mayest hear…
the sweet melodies of the nearness of the heavenly Paradise… Perchance thou
mayest become pure spirit; attain, without taking a single step, the loftiest
stations of mystic ascent; and explore, without leaving thine outward
habitation, the furthermost reaches of the worlds of inner significance.
Thereupon wouldst thou, with a divine rapture, experience true spiritual
attraction, lay down thy life in the path of the Friend, and sacrifice thy soul
in the wilderness of His love. This indeed is the meaning of stillness in
flight and flight in stillness, of fluidity in solidity and solidity in
fluidity.
We beseech God to extend wide His shadow, that the true
believers may hasten thereunto and that His sincere lovers may seek shelter
therein. May He bestow upon men blossoms
from the bowers of His grace and stars from the horizon of His providence.